DrupalSouth Community Day 2024
The DrupalSouth Community Day is a single day event, with a mix of 30 and 60 minute sessions, running across multiple tracks. This year will see a variety of sessions with hands-on working sessions, live demos, a panel discussion, showcases and presentations.
We have taken into account feedback from last year’s event. We’ll be starting earlier and arranging the schedule to better suit our audience groups. If you have any questions or feedback please email events@drupalsouth.org.
First release of session information has been provided by our presenters, and presented in alphabetical order of title. Timing is subject to confirmation.
Accessibility Mistakes: A Developer's Guide
Accessibility Development
Jeannie Panting
This session has been inspired by a recent project that was undertaken to uplift a site to WCAG 2.2 compliance, but resulted in more issues than the original site had.
This session will involve a live demonstration with audience participation to identify accessibility issues on a site, and apply the proper techniques to ensure inclusive web development.
The purpose is to bring a human centred approach to building web components and demonstrate the difference an accessible website can make for users who require assistive technology.
Note: Bringing a laptop would be beneficial. 
Audience:
Technical Non-technical
Standard Drupal Headless Drupal Drupal in Education or Government GovCMS SaaS GovCMS PaaS
CivicTheme and Starshot: World-class site builder experience delivering world-class digital experiences
Development (intermediate/advanced) GovCMS specific Government Collaboration Security Starshot
Thomas Peterson
Session Overview
See what we're doing with CivicTheme — CivicTheme (www.civictheme.io) offers a secure, open-source, accessible and user-friendly framework specifically designed for GovCMS users and government agencies. This session will highlight CivicTheme’s latest developments, its commitment to open governance, robust security measures and how it's working with the new Drupal Starshot initiative.
What You’ll Learn
- CivicTheme Roadmap Update: Explore upcoming features and enhancements driven by community feedback and technological advancements.
- Open Governance: Understand how transparency and collaboration with government stakeholders and the open-source community foster innovation and trust.
- Security and Transparency: Learn about our evidence-based security frameworks, regular audits, and compliance with national standards.
- Starshot & Civictheme: Discover how the synergy between Starshot and CivicTheme will accelerate digital transformation for government websites.
- Live Demo: Experience CivicTheme in action with a demonstration on Experience Builder (the Drupal framework for Starshot), showcasing intuitive design, responsive layouts, and accessible components.
Who Should Attend?
- GovCMS Users: Enhance your website’s design, security, and accessibility.
- Government Agencies: Streamline digital services and ensure compliance with national standards.
- Drupal Developers and Designers: Expand your skills and learn about a new government open-source project.
- Digital Strategists and IT Professionals: Discover innovative solutions for government digital transformation for citizens.
Audience:
Technical Non-technical
Standard Drupal Headless Drupal Drupal in Education or Government GovCMS SaaS GovCMS PaaS
Common (but tricky) GovCMS requirements
GovCMS specific
David Flores-Condezo
GovCMS SaaS comes with a lot of cool features (security, stability, support, procurement) but as we know, it does come with a set of limitations based off the modules which are available on the platform.
In many cases “there’s a module for that” doesn’t apply.
The question then becomes, how can the requirements be met with the tools we have at hand?
In this presentation, we have reviewed a wide range of GovCMS sites and gathered feedback and recommendations from a range of government agencies on how they have approached certain problems.
We present some of the common (but tricky) requirements which regularly beset GovCMS projects.
The presentation will cover areas such as Embargoed content, Migration, Content workflows, Search, Maps, Embedded BI Charts and Notifications.
Audience:
Technical Non-technical
GovCMS SaaS
Content Creators and Drupal: Bridging the Gap Between Developers and Publishers
Content development Project management/delivery management
Mel Stubbings, Chris Knowles, Geeta Sharma, Taylor Spaven, Shaun Whiter
Content publishers are at the heart of any successful Drupal project, yet their everyday challenges are often overlooked. This panel brings together developers, content designers, and publishers to explore the realities of using Drupal from the content side. What pain points do publishers face? Why do they often turn to external tools before even touching Drupal? And how can developers better support content teams to make the platform work for them?
Join our diverse panel as we dive into the key issues content publishers encounter when working with Drupal. We’ll discuss everything from integrating external tools to simplifying complex features within Drupal, and why it’s crucial that content publishers are part of the conversation when decisions are made.
Expect practical, real-world examples of where Drupal succeeds—and where it doesn’t—when it comes to meeting the needs of content teams. This panel will provide actionable insights into how developers and publishers can collaborate more effectively, ultimately creating smoother, more efficient content workflows in Drupal.
With an open Q&A session, the audience will have the chance to ask questions and share their own experiences, ensuring the discussion remains relevant to the challenges faced in real-world projects.
Note: Bring a phone to submit a question 
Audience:
Technical Non-technical
Standard Drupal Headless Drupal Drupal in Education or Government GovCMS SaaS GovCMS PaaS
Exploring Single Directory Components
Development (intermediate/advanced)
Brynn Briedis
Dive into the new Single Directory Components (SDC) system introduced in Drupal 10. This innovative feature allows developers to streamline their theme development process.
We’ll explore how SDCs simplify the management and reusability of UI elements, promote better organisation, and enhance the overall development experience.
Whether you’re a seasoned Drupal developer or just getting started, this talk will provide you with the insights and practical examples needed to leverage SDCs in your next project.
Audience:
Technical
Standard Drupal GovCMS SaaS GovCMS PaaS
GovFlix: A behind the scenes look of a content recommendation system
New features
Murray Woodman
What does a CMS do? Deliver information? Deliver experiences? Inform? Persuade? Engage? Entertain? All of the above? The future of the CMS is based on how effectively content can be delivered to the end user. Effectiveness is based not just on the quality of the content but also its relevancy and timeliness. Recommendation systems allow websites to become smarter, ensuring the quality content can find the right audience at the right time.
GovFlix is a website which showcases video content for government and web development. The navigation system for the site is built on top of a content recommendation system where content is recommended to the user based on their browsing history and interests. The site makes use of several AI algorithms to recommend the best content based on popularity, recency, affinity, similarity and browsing history.
The presentation will provide attendees with a behind the scenes view of what the system does and how it works. The main aim is to explain how a recommender system can be built and deployed to a Drupal website. The presentation will be largely demonstration based and will be broken into the following sections:
- Walkthrough of functionality
- The recommender backend - the schema and index
- The recommender scenarios - crafting responses for users
- Data injestation
- Tracking
- Retrieval and display
Future possibilities
The presentation will be suitable for developers, UX specialists and content designers and site owners of any experience level. it is of relevance to a general and GovCMS audience.
By the end of the presentation the audience will have a solid understanding of how a recommender system can be deployed to a Drupal site as well as a few ideas as to how websites of any flavour can be made smarter to deliver more relevant experiences to users.
Audience:
Technical Non-technical
Standard Drupal Headless Drupal GovCMS SaaS GovCMS PaaS
How to unlock enhanced search visibility & provide a richer user experience using Schema.org
Case Study
Julia Topliss
This presentation will explore the power of Schema.org in enhancing web content, including how it can improve the discoverability of content organically in major search engines.
A key focus of the session will be the integration of Schema.org with Drupal CMS using the Drupal Schema.org Metatag project. This module allows Drupal users to easily implement structured data and extend the functionality of Schema.org on their websites.
Attendees will gain insights into:
- Schema.org fundamentals and its role in improving search visibility and web experiences.
- How Schema helps achieve rich search results
- Real-world case study of a website leveraging schema markup to improve discoverability through search engines and increase user engagement.
- An introduction to the Drupal Schema.org Metatag project, showcasing the types of markup.
- Tools for testing structured data
- Emerging trends - what’s next
By the end of this presentation, attendees will have a clear understanding of how Schema.org and the Drupal Schema.org Metatag project can work together to automate structured data generation, enhance search engine visibility, and deliver more meaningful search experiences.
Audience Takeaways:
- Understanding the value of Schema.org for SEO and rich search results.
- Introduction to the Drupal Schema.org Metatag project and the different data types it works with.
- Insights into emerging trends - what's next.
This session is ideal for web developers, SEO professionals, Drupal site builders, and content managers looking to improve their site’s content discoverability and search performance by integrating Schema.org markup efficiently within Drupal.
Audience:
Technical Non-technical
Standard Drupal Headless Drupal Drupal in Education or Government
PDF or not to PDF!
Content development
Andre Kakos
Government site content managers struggle with the decision about what format they should publish their content. Their concern is that content should be published in an open and accessible form.
So do they convert all legacy PDF content into HTML?
Can they still publish new content in PDF?
What are some the considerations for publishing content either way?
Audience:
Non-technical
Standard Drupal
Starshot show & tell (& tell me what you think)
Starshot
Pamela Barone
Things are moving quickly as we prepare for the first release of Drupal CMS on January 15, 2025 (Drupal's birthday).
As the product owner for Starshot, I'll provide an update on the project, including what's likely to be in scope, what the main challenges have been, and how you can contribute.
I would also love to get feedback from the community about the product itself and the process so far, so hope to have an open discussion as well.
Audience:
Technical Non-technical
Standard Drupal
What has the Drupal Association ever done for me?
Drupal community contribution
Owen Lansbury
The Australian Drupal community is a world leader in bootstrapping its own events through DrupalSouth by maintaining a largely inward looking perspective on how Drupal is used locally.
But what happens when you engage with the global Drupal Association and how can it benefit you as both an individual or organisation?
In his role as Chair of the Drupal Association Board, Owen has spent the past several years helping reimagine the role the DA needs to play globally to sustain the Drupal community and ensure the Drupal project remains innovative and competitive in the long term.
From the Drupal Certified Partner program to Starshot, this talk will look at the recent strategic shifts the DA has undertaken and the exciting initiatives that you can align with to take your Drupal expertise to the next level.
Audience:
Technical Non-technical
Standard Drupal Headless Drupal
